Fibremat or wood mat materials are made predominantly of wood fibre and have a small percent of either a synthetic or a natural fibre bonded together with an adhesive resin generally a phenol formaldehyde resin. These products are used for car door panels and other special applications and have the ability of being moulded to the desired shape and size. However, there are always residues in the form of trims and trimmings from the moulding operations and there is difficulty in recycling these residues since the finished fibremat product has been cured and therefore is not easily broken down. Thus, the growing demand for fibremat and moulded products impacts on the concern for the disposal of the residues. Combustion of the residues is preferably avoided because it emits toxic substances into the air. Likewise, using the residue as a landfill is not acceptable as it can leach out toxic substances into the ground. It has been found that an effective recycling of the residue requires the separation of its fibre components.
Fibremat consists of 88% to 95% wood fibre and 5% to 12% synthetic fibre or natural fibre. These other fibres are preferably long fibres, for instance, long synthetic fibres, namely polyester fibre, polyolefin fibre and cellulosic fibre, or long natural fibres, for example, flax, abaca, ramie, kenaf, hemp and jute.
Wood fibres and other fibres are blended together by passing them through a toothed roller and then deposited pneumatically in an air-laying process to form the mat. A fine synthetic scrim is fed onto the bottom of the thick mat as a carrier and the mat and scrim assembly is needled to produce a strong fibremat with interlocked wood fibre and synthetic fibre. The fibremat is treated with from 6% to 15% by weight of phenol formaldehyde resin based on the oven dry weight of the wood fibre and contains a small percentage of slack wax which is incorporated as 1% to 2% by weight of the wood chips from which the wood fibre is made. This combination is heated and pressed in a mould so that the resin cures. The trim and trimmings are cut from the moulded product and constitute the residues that require recycling.